


The Escape of the Fox

by theweddingofthefoxes



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Eventual Fluff, M/M, Mild Angst, Mild descriptions of violence, Post-TLJ, canonverse, rey as a ruler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-08-28 10:57:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16722030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theweddingofthefoxes/pseuds/theweddingofthefoxes
Summary: After the First Order is defeated and Rey becomes Leia's heir, Kylo Ren and General Hux are both fugitives, and they haven't seen one another in years. Ren settles into a hermetic existence selling kyber, but when he learns Hux is still alive, he goes to find him under the pretense of staging a coup. But there's another reason he wants to see Hux again....





	1. Chapter 1

_No one is ever going to love you now._

* * *

The rumors were so aggrandizing that Ren had to laugh. It was said that the two escapees of the First Order had banded together, that together they would rebuild the Empire, which now felt like long-distant history, flickering and unreal. Had Ren really been born from the line of Vader? Had Vader even been real, or had everything before his life as a fugitive been a dream? Ben had only been smoke, a ghost-boy from a bad dream. 

It was said that those two escapees, the disgraced former Supreme Leader (leader of nothing but ash now, leader of broken metal and traitorous hearts) and the disgraced former general plotted together on some unknown planet, one without even a name most of the time, though a few godsforsaken moons were occasionally nominated for the honor. It was said that they would make their triumphant return when the galaxy least expected it, disrupt the tentative peace that now reigned. 

If only. These stories would be delicious if there was any chance they could be true. 

It had been years since they had lain eyes on each other, no matter what the rumors said. If only they had created a cult together, if only they had joined forces like they should have in the first place. 

It was said that the General could not be killed, that he lived for the taste of spite on his tongue alone, and that rumor was the only one Ren believed.

* * *

Ren had no right to feel as though his mother’s choice of heir was a slap in his face. He was the child who had run, who had forsaken his mother to embrace his grandfather, wasn’t he? A child who never comes home cannot receive his inheritance. But Ren knew she had known he was alive back when she declared Rey her own sole heiress (heiress of _what_ , now, a planet that existed only in dreams? A dead title to rule a dead people?) and he suspected he was intended to feel the sting. 

If he grew weary of living like a hermit he could always try his hand at princehood. He might have more success emerging from hiding to dispute the claim now that Leia was dead and couldn’t argue with him. The little scavenger that now reigned could be dressed as pretty as anything and propped up in front of a council but would never have a head for anything except close combat. If he wanted to stage a coup, Ren liked to tell himself, he always could.

The time just wasn’t right, that was all. 

It didn’t escape Ren’s notice that he had chosen to retreat into shameful solitude just as his dear old uncle had. A Skywalker through and through, in every way. History doomed to repeat itself forever. But it served him well, just as Ach-To had surely served Luke. 

There was an outpost, miles away, where travelers liked to trade with the native species of this planet. The reptilian folk who lived here, the Tonbomo, made elaborate weavings that required no looms because they used their many arms to hold the threads in place. Collectors liked to come and offer foodstuffs or engine oil in exchange. They didn’t mind the presence of the scarred man who showed up every now and then with his own goods. Ren would stock up on basic supplies at their trading center, a few simple foods and fuel and clothes, riding down on a speeder that was older than he was that always listed to the left. He didn’t have any crafts, but he had something better. 

“You have a good reputation with our buyers, Anak,” one of the Tonbomo elders, Eglis, had told him. Ren had been going by new names and titles his whole life, what was one more on the pile? Anakin would have been too obvious, but Anak pleased him just as much. “Perhaps you’ll put us on the map.”

“Can’t have that,” Ren told her, hopping off the speeder so he could go collect his wares from the trunk. “There’s a finite amount here. They’ll run out eventually.”

“Other planets out there.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Eglis.”

“Nothing to fear anymore, you know.”

No, indeed. No one would fear him after his defeats at the hands of that crowned sand rat. It wasn’t as though the Tonbomo hadn’t seen his outbursts, but he hadn’t had his own lightsaber for many years, and the Force had died within him the day he escaped with only his life. When Rey had bested him once and for all, it was like she had blinded the eye that could see the Force all around, and now he was no different than anybody else. Mostly. Now he worked his body with punishing discipline, more than he’d ever trained before as a student of Snoke’s, and he had torn a sapling from the ground with only his hands in view of the Tonbomo once. 

“You never know,” Ren argued. 

“You think the fox will come for you if you venture far?”

“The what?”

Eglis crossed all three pairs of her arms, resting unworried with her back against Ren’s speeder. “Everyone knows the fox. The star-killer. The red beast that ran off in the night.”

It was fortunate the weather had taken a turn for the colder that day; the goosebumps that crept up Ren’s arms appeared to be nothing more than a reaction to the wind blowing their way. “So he’s alive. The general.”

“Alive, yes, and not far from these parts, if my traders have the right of it.”

“How would they know where he is?”

“He has traders too, you know.”

“Once with loose tongues, if they’re not liars.”

“Consider it a blessing their tongues are loose,” Eglis returned, her long tail swishing in the dirt. “He ought to be captured. Rey the Regent will deliver swift justice once he’s been caught.”

Ren spat on the ground at that.

“You are no lover of the new regime, Anak, I know. But you must admit things are easier now.”

“What do I know?” Ren growled, shouldering the pack. “Anyway, I’ll make it worthwhile to you to tell me which of those traders you spoke with.”

“Why do you want to know?” Her voice was suspicious, and for a paralyzing moment Ren was certain that she knew why, the real reason why. But then -- “A man like that, it’s not worth dealing with, no matter how much he’ll pay for kyber.” 

“Credits are credits. You know that as well as anyone.”

She sniffed. 

“Eglis, you get this in motion and I’ll pay you a finder’s fee. Handsome stuff. Your children will eat well.” He hated how effortlessly his father’s voice slipped out of his mouth, how easy it was to wheedle and negotiate. This was a skill that he had had to hone in the last few years. 

“You’ll fetch a bigger price for his head.”

“Why not both? Suppose I sell him a few pretty rocks, get some good money, then turn right around and report him to Rey.”

Eglis laughed at that. “A smart fox like him will know how to deal with double-crossers. He’ll wear your skin like a fine winter coat, if what they say about him is true.”

“Oh, I’ve dealt with men like him before. I think I can handle it.”

She scoffed good-naturedly at him before turning and heading back towards the cluster of rough wooden buildings that comprised the outpost, then looked over her shoulder to catch his gaze. “Come with me then, if you think you can catch him and not the other way around.”

* * *

The trader was a young human woman named Lonska Pex who had lost her ability to speak after surviving a cut throat -- the scar that ran, literally, from ear to ear, had healed into a clean white line like the path of a blaster bolt. She signed something at him when he approached at the table where they’d agreed to meet in the trading post’s cafeteria. He shook his head, which she seemed to expect, and she drew a little device from her vest pocket, signed overtop that instead. It read her introduction aloud in Basic with an accent he could not quite place. 

“Eglis says you want business with the fox.”

“I’ve got kyber to sell him.”

“You’re a weapons man, then. Same as me.” She gave a smile. “Nasty business. You understand.” She moved one hand back from the reading device and drew a finger down her own smooth cheek, indicating Ren’s scar. “Where’d you get the kyber?”

“You just told me you were competition,” Ren answered. “But maybe you could pay to find out.”

Lonska gave a silent laugh. “And so it is. Anak, my friend, I’d gladly pay well if you’d prefer to have an intermediary. The fox is a dangerous man.”

“That’s out of the question. I need to see him myself.”

“Need to, do you?”

“No offense to you, but I’d rather set the negotiations myself.”

“Ah yes, and you think I’ll cheat you.” She gave him a look that sent a strange chill up the back of his neck, and then she pressed a key on the reading device, lowering the volume. “I think one of us is untrustworthy for sure, and that one is not me.” 

Ren said nothing. Lonska put put one hand up to her face, and at first she appeared to be hiding behind her hand, but then she realized he was indicating a mask when she used her other hand to feign swinging a lightsaber. 

“The Tonbomo don’t know much about the world beyond the stories the traders bring. They haven’t done deals with former First Order higher-ups like me. I’m mute, not blind.”

“Enough,” Ren said, and the dark low pitch of his voice could still put fear into someone’s eyes, even without the Force to back up his threats. “Enough of that. You won’t speak of this to anyone.”

Lonska snorted, turned the volume back up.

“Do you think you’re being funny?” 

“Listen to me. If money’s what you want, I can make sure you get it.”

“Of course money is what I want.” She took a bite of the bread she’d bought off one of the Tonbomo, chewing as she continued to sign to the reader. “The fox is a good customer of mine. I’m arming him enough to keep him safe, that’s all he wants. You think kyber will tempt him?”

“The man built a superweapon, of course it’ll tempt him.”

“Superweapons are not his priority now. Nor are visits from old friends.”

“I could change his mind on both counts. He might listen to me if he knew I could get him his rightful place in the galaxy.”

"You haven't done much conquering lately."

"I need his help. As he needs mine."

She slurped her tea loud, pondering. “Suppose I took advantage of his trust in me and brought you to him. How do I get paid if you’re both dead?”

“You’ll get paid up front. From me, anyway.”

“How soon can you pay me?”

“How soon can we leave?”

Again, Lonska gave a silent laugh, and for the first time Ren felt real hope that this was all going to go his way after all. “Get what you need and meet me back here in an hour.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How will Hux react to seeing Ren for the first time in years?

Ren had been hoarding money for a long time.

Almost everything he had gotten from the Tonbomo had been through trading kyber instead of spending credits. They sometimes powered little weapons with it -- no lightsabers, but interesting things. More often they sold it. Ren didn’t much care to whom. He never asked. He sometimes sold kyber directly to strangers at the trading post. He hadn’t spent anything so far.

He hoarded kyber too, of course. The best pieces. The ones that spoke to him, though now the language they spoke was foreign. He had known that language once, but the sand rat--

Nothing. No use thinking of such things. That part of him had been cut away as sure as an amputated limb, and he didn’t even have phantom pains of his former Force powers to tease him. The kyber he kept only to sell to the right buyer, even if in the past they might have made a worthy lightsaber. That was all done. 

Hux might not be, though.

That was where all that money came in. Lonska Pex wasn’t cheap, and she was loyal to Hux. He’d always been good at inspiring loyalty in those he could get something out of, and she was a good find. She procured all sorts of things. Including the man who was responsible for Hux’s downfall in the first place.

“Do you think he’ll try to kill me?” Ren had asked her as they left the Tonbomo outpost on her sleek little ship, the one she’d named the Smiler’s Revenge. No need to ask why. He was only half kidding when he asked.

She scoffed, rolled her eyes, turned back to the viewport. Her pack was already stuffed with every single credit Ren had accumulated since Rey had nearly killed him. 

So Ren had drowsed, as best as he could, and dreamed of Hux.

_Of course he will try to kill you with every fiber of his being. Who says he couldn’t, now? He may be smaller but he’s got aim like a droid, and who says Lonska won’t lead you down the path to his home to give him something to practice his blaster on...she gets rich and Hux gets revenge…_

He dreamed of Hux’s mouth on his mouth, the way they used to kiss with the sort of hunger that only builds in the stomach over the course of a secret affair; and back when he could read minds, he could tell they were so thorough in covering their tracks that no one suspected them and that made it all even better. 

And then he’d run away, in the crucial moment. Instead of passing along vital information to the Order that he claimed to lead, he had escaped with his life, but without the Force, without any of his honor. Without telling Hux what the Resistance was going to do. It had been easy for them to win after that, and Ren had assumed, as he healed in shame, that Hux had died in the takeover, or had been brought to justice, which amounted to the same thing. It had been weeks before he had heard any indication otherwise. 

Lonska shook him awake when they arrived, not delicate but not overly rough, either. She seemed a shade more sympathetic to him than before he’d fallen asleep, and Ren wondered if she possessed the same faint glow of Force-sensitivity that his father had had. She picked up on things too quickly. After pulling out her reader and setting it on one knee, she signed over it to ask, “Why do you really come for the fox, Kylo Ren?”

He said nothing for a long time.

“I already have my money. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Do you think he’ll kill me?” he finally asked.

“He speaks of you.”

“In what way?”

“He won’t believe you’re alive until he sees it for himself. No one’s reliably seen you for years, except me.”

Ren blinked. “Does he hope I’m dead or alive?”

She gave her silent laugh. “He’d rather you be alive. I can tell. He has a lot to tell you.”

“So I’m safe.”

“You come with someone he trusts, bearing gifts of kyber. That’s as safe as anyone can get with him.” She cocked her head, watching him. He felt too large for the speedy little ship’s passenger seat, like a Wookie in the cockpit. “Why are you really here?”

“To offer him an opportunity to stage a coup.”

“The two of you, against the queen of the stars and all her forces? This besides the fact she’s the most powerful force-user since Luke Skywalker. I think there’s something else. Hux speaks of you like a long-lost brother. Or more.”

Ren swallowed. “Does he,” he said, forcing his voice to not betray any of his thoughts. 

“And now you’re here.” Lonska powered the ship down, and Ren felt the engine’s purr fade off into nothing. “I’ll get you inside and then you can speak to him yourself.” 

“What about you?”

“I’ll sleep awhile. I’ve been jealous of you the whole ride.” She tucked the reader back into her vest pocket, then stood, cracking her back with a grin of satisfaction. Ren followed her out the hatch, into the sunshine of this new planet, this clean slate, this place where he might, perhaps, be forgiven.

* * *

Hux had been living for some time in a sort of sprawling bunker built into the side of a hill, a startling combination of natural greenery and durasteel that shone in the daylight. Lonska tapped in an entrance code so quickly that she looked like she was just making it up, except there came the sound of something _thunk_ -ing far off. A holo-keyboard appeared, and Lonska typed out a greeting.

_Your Smiler has come with interesting cargo. A kyber trader you may have missed for a while. He means you no harm._

Another _thunk_ , and the durasteel door opened like a massive set of jaws, its teeth separating to reveal a dark throat. Lonska gave him a quick, sloppy little salute, and then sauntered back off towards her ship, no doubt ready to lie down in her bunk and dream of ways to spend her windfall. Ren watched her for only a moment or two more and then headed down the hallway, towards the distant light, his heart picking up speed with every step he took.

_He’ll never forgive you. He’ll never--nobody will ever--the scavenger stole--_

If Hux killed him now, he deserved it.

But Hux did not seem ready to kill him as Ren stepped out from the hall into a sort of spare receiving lobby, small and severe; it seemed as if Hux was not even ready to accept that he would really appear at all, even after Lonska’s message -- and, stars above, Hux looked so very much like he had the last time Ren had seen him, he stood unscarred, redhaired, wild-eyed, standing as rigid as the soldier has had not been for so very long. And yet everything was so different, Hux dressed in civvies, his hair a little bit longer than Ren had ever seen it, nothing drastic, it was brushed but not gelled and it framed his severe face so gently -- Ren’s heart was pounding so hard that he couldn’t speak and could hardly hear, he could only watch a thousand expressions unfold on Hux’s face before his legs gave out from under him and he dipped sideways into darkness.

He fainted but came to fast, so fast that Hux had hardly made it to his side by the time he opened his eyes again. Under the fuzzy radio roar of his head, he heard the most familiar voice in the universe say his name, once, twice. The pack of the kyber he had saved that he carried on his shoulder had fallen to the ground, and he was dimly aware that the crystals had scattered out behind him like the tail of a comet, like he could somehow see himself from above. 

“Hux,” he made his voice say, and there were cold hands clasped around his own. 

“You’re alive.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, and he knew it was the first time he had ever apologized to Hux for anything. “I brought you. This.”

“The crystals?” Hux’s expression flickers again, flutterquick, concern to amusement to disdain to amusement again. “Fuck them.”

“You could. Build a weapon.”

“I already did. All that time ago.”

“What about a new one.”

“What about you?”

“I could help you.”

“I’m not _asking_ about weapons right now.”

“Hux.” He sat himself up, clumsily.

“Keep them.”

“They’re a gift.”

“I’ve got a better one. For you.”

“Me?”

“But first you have to promise me,” Hux said, and he leaned close, and his voice was equal measures honey and fire, and there is no denying that there were tears in his eyes. “That you will never let me wonder where in this godsforsaken universe ever, ever again.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the end, or maybe it is only the beginning, for the reunited Ren and Hux.

Ren came to in full quickly. He’d passed out a lot when he was a kid, he seemed to remember, but always seemed to bounce back without any trouble. He shoved the kyber crystals back into the pack in big efficient handfuls while Hux went to go find him something to drink. By the time he was done, Hux was calling him into the adjoining room, a little kitchen and dining room combination all made of stone and chrome. “I’ve got water,” Hux said, and he smiled the secret smile that Ren only ever saw. “I would have never guessed that’s what Smiler meant, when she said...I would have never known. I should never doubt her ability to find things that no one else can find.”

“I thought you’d murder me on sight.”

“I should have, shouldn’t I? But we both know that could never happen.”

This time, Ren smiled too. 

“I’m sorry,” he said again.

“I suspect you’ve been sorry for a long time, Ren.”

An understatement. “From the moment I left. But in the moment, all I wanted was to live.”

Hux walked over to the table, beckoned Ren to sit down in the chair opposite him. “An instinct that rules us all, wouldn’t you say? We’ve all lived like cowards since Rey took the throne, but we’ve lived, damn it.”

“We ought to toast to that.”

Hux raised his water cup in offering, and Ren sat, clinked his own gently against it. “You left the Order and so did I, when it all came down to it,” Hux said after a moment of consideration. “That’s all that matters now. The rest is ashes. Do you want your gift?”

“How could you possibly have a gift for me, Armitage? You didn’t even know I was alive, did you?”

“I had this saved. Just in case.”

Ren bit down hard on his tongue to keep his mouth from opening even a millimeter. He knew he must be measured, he must not let himself soften and melt away so soon after blacking out on Hux’s floor. Hux stood and left the room for only a minute while Ren sucked on the inside of his cheek, let his teeth scrape against the soft flesh. Try as he might, he couldn’t imagine at all what the gift could be. Hux made no attempt to surprise him or keep him in the dark upon returning.

“I didn’t mean to steal it. I thought...that you might be waiting for me somewhere, when I left the flaming ruins of our fleet.”

It had no kyber heart within in, the part that really mattered, but the lightsaber itself was otherwise intact, mostly. Much like Ren himself. Chipped and cracked in placed, hollow. But it had made it all this time. 

“I was waiting,” Ren murmured, reaching out to take it as if it might fly away if he moved too quickly. “I just never told you. Never let myself believe I was waiting…” Yes, it was the one, the one he had abandoned with all of his powers, with all of his men. With Hux. “I can’t believe the sand rat didn’t find it first.”

“She had other things on her mind.” Hux sat down once more, clearly fascinated by the way Ren studied the battered hilt. “I wanted to return it. So I suppose that it’s not a gift so much as a reunion.” He cleared his throat. “If you wanted to reclaim your mother’s throne, I suppose you’d need it.”

“My connection with the Force was broken when she defeated me,” Ren answered, his voice clipped. “I couldn’t use it even if I wanted to.”

“It needs new kyber. Which you have. The traitor stormtrooper, he could use a lightsaber, couldn’t he?”

“I’m not convinced he wasn’t sensitive. Me, I have nothing now.”

“It’s yours regardless.” Hux sipped his water. “Sell it to Lonska if its price in scrap is worth more to you. My job is done.”

Ren nodded, not really agreeing but merely lost in thought. Overwhelmed. Hux continued:

“You don’t have nothing now. You’ve lived.”

“Lived to become a measly trader.”

“Lived to reunite with the greatest General the First Order had ever known.”

“The years didn’t do anything to your ego, did they?”

Hux gave a smile that truly did make Ren think of a fox, a thief, a trickster, a creature that would never be caught. “I lived for a long time in despair, Ren. I thought I was a failure. The entire Order had crumbled away, never to return. And then I realized that nothing is permanent as long as I’m alive. And they have not killed me yet. Anything can be rebuilt, even if you have to crawl to safety with blood on your time, even if you have to bide your time.”

“And so you have.”

“For years. And here you are.”

“What do you plan to rebuild? A man like you always has plans.”

“Suppose we had a rule all of our own. Like we always talked about.”

“It didn’t work, before.”

“We were dogged before. We had the Resistance plaguing us. I’m talking about a rule in which we _truly_ rule.” Hux stood, his eyes giving off the same gleam they always had before when he was talking about weapons and stars and plans written in tight trailing Aurebesh. “Unchallenged. A rule in which we stand equal, Ren. Tell me we will.”

Ren took Hux’s hand, pulled him so Hux stood just before him. Yes, he had missed this, the sort of hungry mania that was so contagious, which could light a fire in anyone who was nearby. How often had their plans for the future been their dirty talk, back when the First Order still stood? Plans to dominate, conquer, rule, snarled into one another’s ears, sighed into skin. Just this little reminder of how things had _been_ was enough to make goosebumps rise on his arm.

“We will,” Ren answered, pulling Hux even closer, so he had to bend at the knee a bit. “We’ll find a way to rule. You’re absolutely right, aren’t you? All we needed was time to lick our wounds. We just needed to wait….”

And Hux took the hint so perfectly, sank into him entirely, kissed him as forcefully as ever, like there had not been those long aching years between them, like everything in the galaxy was still possible. In reality, it would be so hard to rebuild, the odds were so long and getting revenge on Rey would be close to impossible, and yet--

_It is all possible it is all possible we will have it we will do it it’s all ours it’s for us he came back for us he’ll make it real--_

These were not Ren’s thoughts. They were Hux’s.

Ren gasped into Hux’s mouth without breaking the kiss, and suddenly a sensation came over him like falling into the coldest water all at once, plunging-cold and then fever-hot, all at once, so intense that Hux pulled away, alarmed, his eyes huge with concern, and then all of the kyber crystals that Ren had so carefully packed back away were out, free, untethered from gravity, like leaves in a light wind, skittering across the nothingness of the air from the pack towards the table, drawn as if by magnet force to the empty hull of the lightsaber. 

“You told me that you--”

“I _was_ \--”

Let the queen try and stop them now, let her try and crush what the connection between Hux and Ren had created. Unquenchable, untouchable, defiant, this was, this twisted tangled love they had forged, that they had not forgotten, that they had not lost. Anything could be rebuilt, and two cowards could find forgiveness between one another, and Hux drew Ren in for another kiss, another long drink at the well. And now that Ren was opening the windows in Hux’s head again, he could see the plans written neatly for the future, what Hux wanted most of all, and first on this list was to kiss him again and again, as he reveled in what he had awoken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all! I had such a lot of fun with this story! I'm very much looking forward to what 2019 will bring, and I hope you've been enjoying my writing this year!

**Author's Note:**

> I kept my giveaway winner waiting for such a long time! To make up for it, I've decided to make this a much longer story than I originally intended. I'm dipping my toe into canonverse again (with a few of my own inventions) and I hope you like it!


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